Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/259

Rh only twelve remained, and that a party of Sioux were on their way to extinguish this feeble remnant of a once powerful tribe. So much for the generosity of savage warfare!

On the 27th I set out, with two men and four dogs, to explore the barren grounds stretching from Dease River to the Coppermine, and to determine the most practicable route for the transport of our boats, baggage, and provisions. For three days we ascended Dease River, in a north-easterly direction, carefully tracing its course, which is very crooked. The ice-marks visible upon the trees and banks indicated the height of the water when liberated in the spring, but at this period we found it everywhere frozen to the bottom. The woods grew thinner and more stunted as we advanced; and on the third evening we encamped in a small cluster of dwarf spruces, barely sufficient, in number, to yield us firing, and brush for our beds. In the night a gale sprang up from the north-east, with a tremendous storm of snow-drift, which almost buried us alive, as huddled together with our dogs we lay exposed to the fury of the tempest. It continued unmitigated throughout the following day, and we sought a miserable screen behind our sledges, placed on edge in the deep snow. To the Arctic traveller it appears almost incredible